Ukraine says Russia launched ballistic missiles on Sumy, 31 people reportedly killed

SUMY, Ukraine — A Russian strike on Ukraine's northeastern city of Sumy killed at least 31 people and wounded dozens on Sunday, Kyiv said, in the deadliest attack in months.

Ukraine said Russia launched ballistic missiles on Sumy's city centre on Palm Sunday.

The attack came two days after US envoy Steve Witkofftravelled to Russia to meet its leader Vladimir Putin and despite US President Donald Trump urging Moscow to end the war.

Sumy lies close to the Russian border and has come under increasing attack for weeks.

Rescuers said the strike hit the city centre "right when there were many people on the street."

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow launched a ballistic missile on Sumy and called on the world to put pressure on Russia to end the three-year war and called for a "strong response" from Europe and the US.

Palm Sunday 

Local authorities in Sumy published footage of bodies strewn on the street and people running for safety, with cars on fire and wounded civilians on the floor.

An AFP reporter saw bodies strewn near a trolleybus and on the street.

Russia has relentlessly attacked Ukraine in recent weeks, even as Trump calls on it to "get moving" on ending the more than three-year-long war..

Russia had refused a US-proposed unconditional ceasefire and has been accused by Ukraine and its European allies of dragging out the war and seeking to stall efforts for peace negotiations.

Sumy has been under increasing pressure since Moscow pushed back much of Ukraine's troops from its Kursk region across the border.

The eastern city so far has been spared from the kind of fighting seen further south in the Donetsk region but Kyiv for weeks has warned that Moscow could mount an offensive on Sumy.

Russia in recent weeks has claimed the capture of a village in the Sumy region for the first time since the early days of its 2022 invasion.

Russia launched its invasion partially through the Sumy region and briefly occupied parts of it before being pushed back by Ukrainian forces.

Moscow has not yet commented on the strike.